Support the Space for Life

Would you like to participate in the advancement of natural science and scientific culture? Get people interested in environmental issues? Become a member of the Space for Life Foundation and take part in its activities.

North American porcupine

Onglets

Distinguishing features

The American porcupine is quite a stocky animal. It’s the world’s third biggest rodent after the capybara and the beaver. Despite its quills, the porcupine’s coat is soft.

In the eastern part of their habitat, these porcupines have black pelts, whereas they are blondish brown further west. A porcupine's fur is made up of ground hair and guard hair. Some 30,000 stiff quills cover its head, neck, rump and tail. It has long, curved claws.

Reproduction

During the rutting season (October to December), the male and female spend about one week together. When the female is ready to mate, she \dances\ with the male. They both rear up on their hind legs, belly to belly, giving a variety of squeaks, groans and grunts. There is considerable speculation about how they actually mate, but it seems that the female flattens her quills and raises her tail over her back to present herself to the male. The female may mate with several partners and bears one litter per year, with one or two young per litter. Gestation lasts about seven months.

The young stay with the mother until fall. Although baby porcupines are weaned at about six or seven weeks, they start eating plants at two weeks. Porcupines reach sexual maturity at two to three years.

Diet

In the summer the porcupine eats the leaves and buds of the aspen, the white birch and the willow. It also consumes aquatic plants (water lilies and sagittaria). Its menu moreover includes terrestrial plants (herbaceous, grasses, raspberry bushes) and nuts (acorns and beechnuts). Occasionally it raids gardens or devastates corn fields

In the winter it feeds on the sapwood (the tender part under the bark) of conifers and deciduous trees. They also eat leaves, tree buds and aquatic plants, including water lilies and arrowhead, as well as corn, antlers, bones and salt. Because they are fond of salt, they may eat items that have been in contact with human sweat or urine, such as paddles, tool handles and shoes.

Predators

Their main enemies are fishers, although they may occasionally be attacked by bobcats, lynx, pumas, wolverines, coyotes and red foxes and Black bears.

These animals have discovered that the porcupine has no quills on its belly. With the swat of a paw they flip it over on its back and attack the underside. Eagles and the great horned owl also prey on it.

Many porcupines are also crushed by cars.

Habitat

They live in mixed forests, underbrush and scrubby areas. They make use of natural shelters, including hollow tree trunks, overturned logs, the space under a pile of rocks and caves. Their shelters can be detected by their scat and the odour of their urine.

They are found throughout North America, as far south as Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Ecology, behaviour

Porcupines supplement their diet with minerals by eating fallen antlers. Their quills help make them buoyant in the water, so that they can reach aquatic plants. They do a lot of damage to trees by girdling their tops and clipping the leaders. Porcupines have a keen sense of hearing and smell. They are largely nocturnal. They can often be seen along roadsides, particularly where salt has been spread.

French name

Porc-épic d'Amérique

Scientific name

Erethizon dorsatum

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodents

Family

Erethizontidae

Size

Total length: 80 to 115 cm
Tail length: 20 to 25 cm

Weight

From 5 to 16 kg

Life span

In the wild: 7 to 10 years
In captivity: 15 years.

Status

Least concern (IUCN 2016)
Common species

At the Biodôme

Being nocturnal, the porcupines are not very active in daytime. They hide when sleeping, climb in trees or lie with their faces toward the rocks so as to display their quills and protect their sensitive, unprotected muzzles.

The porcupine’s habitat is also used by raccoons. During the day the space is reserved for raccoons; at 2:30 in the afternoon they’re removed to make the habitat available to porcupines. The porcupines will spend the rest of the day and all night there.